Virtual Touch Brings VR Closer

Scientists have created a touch interface that, while smooth, can provide the user with a simulated sensation of a variety of surfaces, including that of a sharp blade or needle (from MIT Technology Review).

By controlling the direction in which pressure is applied to the skin when a user's finger is run across the smooth surface, the brain can be tricked into feeling a variety of pointed or textured objects where there are none. Essentially, this is the touch equivalent of an optical illusion.

While this technology is still in the earliest stages of laboratory testing, within 15 years, it will be commercially viable. By then, it will find many uses in medicine, defense, education, entertainment, and the arts. Examples of practical applications include training medical students in surgical techniques, or creating robots with hands that can perfectly duplicate human characteristics.

This will be one of the critical components of creating compelling and immersive virtual reality environments, and the progress of this technology between now and 2020 will enable prediction of the specific details and capabilities of virtual reality systems for consumers. A fully immersive VR environment available to the average household has already been predicted here, and now one more key component appears to be well on track.

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Comments

We're getting closer and closer to seeing the Star Trek 'holodeck' become a reality. Medical and military training will benefit greatly from this advancement. But when some form of it is inevitably used for entertainment, several interesting questions arise. For example, is it really cheating if the woman/man you are 'intimate' with is virtual?

JoePike - you raise an interesting point. They actually briefly showed this concept in the movie AI (which went to hell after about the first hour (which is when Kubrick died and Speilberg took over), but raised many subtly interesting points like yours nonetheless).

My personal opinion is that yes, it would still be considered cheating as the emotional/sexual desire driving the person to be intimate with a virtual mistress/lover would still be present, which is what constitutes an act as 'cheating' in my opinion.

Alternatively, one might argue that if these VR people only offer visual, audio and tactile VR, but not emotional/personality AI, then they are essentially the VR equivalent of prostitutes. Which is still cheating.